I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
Parallel translations
- WEB I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’
- KJV And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
- NKJV and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’
- NASB I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired laborers.” ’
- NLT and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Humbled, he plans to ask only to be a hired servant, no longer claiming the rights of a son.
Overview
The son comes with no demands, only contrition, ready to forfeit sonship and serve. This humility is fitting for one who has sinned. Yet the father's response will far exceed the son's request, picturing how God's grace gives more than the repentant dare ask.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 42:6Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes.”
- Ps 84:10For better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
- 1 Pet 5:6Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.
- Jas 4:8–10Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Luke 5:8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”
- Gen 32:10I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.
- Josh 9:24–25The Gibeonites answered, “Your servants were told clearly that the LORD your God had commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land and wipe out all its inhabitants before you. So we greatly feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we have done this.
- Luke 7:6–7So Jesus went with them. But when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends with the message: “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy to have You come under my roof.
- 1 Cor 15:9For I am the least of the apostles and am unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
- Matt 15:26–27But Jesus replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
- 1 Tim 1:13–16I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man; yet because I had acted in ignorance and unbelief, I was shown mercy.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 15:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.